CurdBee Billing Changes

We’ve spent the past few weeks hacking away at our billing backend, and we’re finally ready to roll out a big update to all our current CurdBee PRO users. This change, which will go live on 1st December, 2010, will apply to both new and existing CurdBee PRO subscribers.

Don’t worry, it’s not a price hike! We just wanted to stick to our mantra and make the billing process even simpler.

When we originally launched CurdBee PRO, we thought the best option would be to charge for PRO subscription upfront while charging for modules in arrears, based on usage – basically charging at the end of the month instead at the beginning.

For example, if a user converted to CurdBee PRO from on 14th day of the current month and added the Estimates Module on the same day as well, he or she was charged $2.70 for PRO edition on 14th itself and charged $2.70 for the Module on the next billing date which is the 1st day of next month. Of course, on the same day, he or she was also charged $5.00 for PRO for the next month.

Confusing, right? We wanted to change that.

The real problem was when PRO subscriptions and/or Modules were cancelled and/or downgraded halfway through a billing cycle. Since modules are always post-charged, it confused people who ended up thinking that there were unauthorized charges on their credit card statements even after their downgrade and/or cancellation. We realised the process was broken.

So, we fixed it. Starting from 1st December 2010, we will always bill in advance for both PRO and all Modules you add to your account.

Going back to our example above, in this instance, the user will be charged a pro-rated amount of $5.40 on the 14th, the date he or she signed up. This charge will be for both CurdBee PRO and the Module he or she enabled. On the 1st of the following month, the user will be charged the fully monthly charge of $10, and this pattern will continue for as long as he or she has these features enabled.

The Billing Change and You
When this billing change goes into effect on the 1st of December, our monthly users will be charged both for the Modules they used in November, and for the Modules they are going to use in December.

Here’s a summary of what you will be billed for on the 1st.

  1. CurdBee PRO Subscription – Charged In advance for December 2010
  2. Modules – Charged in advance for December 2010
  3. Modules – Charged in arrears for November 2010

We’ve tried to make it as simple as possible, but if you have any questions please do tweet or drop us a line.